Astronomy Shed LED Polarscope Illuminator

[Jiggy 67]

Has anyone ever used one of these polarscope illuminators???...what do you think??....are they worth the £30 from RVO??...are they easy to fit?? and does the standard 40mm fit a polarscope for an EQ5??

[Bizibilder]

If I want to see the polarscope reticule i just hold a torch so that some of its light gets down the "hole" in the mount. Or, if you are handy you can make one from a battery, a red LED, a resistor and a bit of blu-tak.

[JamesF]

Yup, in extremis shining a red torch down the scope works for me, though I did get weary of that and made an illuminator out of a plastic waste pipe fitting and an LED (you don't even need a resistor if you get an LED with one that's built-in). I even power it from the mains using an old phone charger. Cost a fortune, mind. I don't think I saw any change from £4.

James

[brantuk]

I used the RVO one for a while with a CG5 GT goto and found it very effective and useful - I particularly liked that the brightness can be turned up/down. Thoroughly recomended. I sold it with the mount though and now use mounts with built in polar scope illuminators. Hth

[Capricorn]

OK, it's early and being thick doesn't help.

The title of this is Astronomy Shed LED Polar Scope Illuminator.

Astronomy Shed is another astronomy forum.

There is no mention of Astronomy Shed in the posts and everything talks about RVO, Rother Valley Optics.

What is the relevance of Astronomy Shed in the title? :icon_scratch: :icon_scratch:

[JamesF]

That's what it's called:

http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/astronomy-shed-led-polarscope-illuminator_d5223.html

James

[Capricorn]

Now that I didn't expect.

Just the post seemed a bit odd, I had half expected a DIY build that the OP had found, and was asking about.

[Stargazer33]

I've got a little LED light that I bought off of Amazon (I think). It was one light in a pack of four that people who go to discos (I think they call them raves, or something like that these days) put on their fingertips and then go "big box, little box, cardboard fish!" (or something! ).

Anyway, I just turn that on and drop it into the open end of the finder scope tube. Set up the polar alignment, then pull the light out and turn it off. Simples! That way you don't need really long arms to be able to hold a torch at the top end of the finder scope whilst trying to look through the other end.

Bryan

[glowjet]

The cheap way is make you own as has been suggested, there are now 12V LED`s available that you can connect straight to your 12V DC supply, but you may need a 470Kohm variable potentiometer in the circuit to vary the brightness. bit of plastic pipe to fit your Polar scope opening in the mount hot melt glue to fix the LED, or you can go to the expense of an LED panel holder for the device, screwed into the side of your tube. Sorry, can not remember the code for the Red LED which come in two brightness levels, but Maplins are able to supply all the electronic parts for the project

John.

[glowjet]

For anyone interested, the reference for the Maplins LED are code CJ66W 3mm 12V standard brightness and code CJ70M 3mm 12V high brightness. I used the latter with a 470Kohm pot in the circuit which works just fine

John.

[starnut]

One I made earlier

[Russe]

Say, doesn't the HEQ5 Pro GOTO come with a polar scope illuminator?

Somehow mine doesn't seem to work or what do I have to do? (I tried switching on/off the mount to no avail)

[Viv]

Say, doesn't the HEQ5 Pro GOTO come with a polar scope illuminator?

Somehow mine doesn't seem to work or what do I have to do? (I tried switching on/off the mount to no avail)

yes it does.

Wonder if the brightness has been turned down...... have a look through your hand controller settings, it should be :

Setup Mode

Handset Setting

- LCD Contrast

- PolarScope LED

- Beep Volume